Saturday, October 13, 2007

Your kid might be right

Every time Andrew gets sick and requires medication, he balks when it comes time to take it. My friend Tammy's little girl does the same. She's still little enough that they can pry her mouth open and make her take it. But Andrew is already 5' 3" and 170+ lbs. There is not much I could physically make him do. Especially take medicine. I have to use the coax, beg, bargain and bribe method. A little while ago I found out why little kids don't like medication. "It tastes like shit" to quote my son, after a dose of Nyquil.

I suffer from acid reflux. Probably something worse but that is what I'll call it. Usually I take Nexium and it's all good. I ran out of it the other day and not really thinking, I hadn't asked my doctor for a refill. I must say that stuff really works. After yesterday's events, we got home and somewhere around 9 or 10, I got hungry. Ham biscuits just weren't enough to keep my stomach happy. Steve wasn't hungry so I fixed myself some chili. Truth be told, I had crackers and cheese with some chili somewhere mixed in. We go to bed, I'm fat and happy and ready to sleep.

As I open my eyes, I hope and pray there is some sort of wastebasket or something of the kind near me. (Luckily there was) It's 1 a.m. and the chili has come back to haunt me. Not only was it haunting me, it was fricken' harassing me. I find some Pepto Bismol tablets in the medicine cabinet and go back to sleep. 3 a.m. it comes back for Round 2. By 5 a.m., I cannot longer stand it and I have to go get something over the counter. Luckily, Walmart is 2 minutes away and open 24/7. I sorta kinda get Steve awake enough to let him know where I'm going and head out. Luckily, no freaks to report, I guess 5 a.m. is too late for them.

I get back here and chug some Maalox straight from the bottle. It immediately comes back out. I look at the bottle and it's Mixed Berry. Who in the hell is in charge of marketing this crap? Is putting a horrible flavor in it supposed to make it taste better or leave a better after taste? I know it's very chalky when there is no flavor and I think I can handle that better. What happened to the mint flavor? At least it tasted like toothpaste.

So next time your kid doesn't want to take their medicine, you might want to smell it or even put a small amount on your tongue. I don't think kids are trying to get out of it because it is "good" for them; I think it just tastes so horrible they don't want to keep the taste in their mouth until it's time for the next dose.

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